Today we are announcing Cisco CloudVerse, an integrated set of capabilities that enables customers to deliver cloud applications and services by uniquely combining the unified data center and cloud intelligent network. CloudVerse is the culmination of Cisco’s data center and network innovation over the last few years and provides our customer with the platform for their journey to the cloud. CloudVerse enables our customers to deliver cloud applications and services with a cloud platform tailored to their needs – whether private, public, or hybrid – in an interconnected world of many clouds.

CloudVerse enables service providers, governments, and enterprises to offer their solutions as a service and deliver them with the full benefits of clouds. CloudVerse’s benefits are greater simplicity in deployment and management of cloud services, stronger security with a more comprehensive approach, faster service agility, improved economics, and an assured experience for cloud users.

CloudVerse integrates the three key elements of a business-class cloud:

Unified Data Center – Bringing together the compute, network, management, and storage elements to offer an integrated platform for applications and services

Cloud Applications and Services – Cisco offers a set of pre-tested applications and services for those companies looking to build and provide cloud services to individuals, businesses, and their own organizations

Let’s dive a bit deeper into what these CloudVerse pillars are comprised of.

If you have paid close attention, you’ve probably discovered that the first letter of each word put together spell the word LISTENER. Makes it easy to remember, right? It all starts and ends with listening!

LISTEN

If you don’t do anything else, just listen. If you’re new to social media, listen first, engage next. If you’ve been doing social for a while, keep listening. Always! Not just during your launch period or around your event. Listening can help you get an outside perspective on your company. It can help you gain real-time unfiltered feedback, uncover issues, pain points and new opportunities. It can also be used to gain an edge on your competition, and can even help you avoid or minimize a crisis situation. Hint:Read More »

No matter which hemisphere you’re in, the season is beginning to change and the new season reminds me of a few changes and constants. Here in the San Francisco Bay area, the weather will soon be getting colder, the trees on the local hills will turn their leaves a different color, and traffic congestion picks up as local workers return from their vacations. But these changes are not out of the ordinary and we’re used to dealing with them. A little preparation, knowledge, and flexibility–whether dressing appropriately, admiring the beautiful seasonal transitions, and shifting a commute schedule–keep us going and happy.

Likewise, major changes in the cloud and data center are upon us, but we’ve seen transitions like this before in IT. Proper training, strong partnering, and accepting that progress is inevitable will position you for success on the pathway to Cloud delivery.

An example of one of our customers moving to the Cloud is Entel. Based in Chile, Entel has worked to integrate the power of data center computing with the intelligence of the network in a Unified Service Delivery approach. Here is a short video our global team put together with Entel.

It’s exciting to see customers using Cisco UCS servers and Nexus data center switching to deliver cloud services flexibly, at scale, and with a pay-per-use model and meeting with good success. In its portfolio of services, Entel can offer virtualization as well as Cloud services to their customers based upon specific needs. By combining the network and compute, Entel has what could be considered the most advanced data center in Chile. Their ability to offer any service with high availability quickly to the market puts them in a spot of opportunity and if that sounds good to you, please leave a comment on this blog.

It wasn’t something I’d ever considered before, disability in the diplomatic service, because I unfortunately, like most people, have quite entrenched images of what a diplomat looks like. So I marveled when I heard that a female diplomat who was deaf had risen through the ranks.

But unfortunately whilst the story starts there, it isn’t where it ends.

Jane Cordell worked in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 2001 and in 2010 was offered the post of deputy head of mission in Kazakhstan, only to have the offer revoked when the FCO decided that making adjustments for her disability would be too expensive. They deemed the cost of her posting was beyond the “reasonable adjustments” which employers are obliged to make for disabled staff.

But I wonder if they’ve overlooked the value they’ll be missing out on, given the extra abilities and commitment Cordell’s disability generates.

“When it comes to Inclusion and Diversity, you have to make it personal. You have to find a way to incorporate it into Cisco and outside of Cisco every day – make it part of your life and your DNA. Share your commitments to Inclusion and Diversity with your family, your friends, your co-workers and your customers, partners and shareholders. If we start having discussions with our customers around Inclusion and Diversity, we realise that other than a vendor relationship we have core values in common.” Brad Oliver, Services Sales Manager and Inclusion and Diversity Lead in Canada

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